The Building of St Edward's School: A Chronology (1870 - 2020)

P AGE N O : 77

Corfe House is improved at a cost of£1,650 (£45,210 today) making a total outlay of £11,400 (£312,634 today) (General Purposes, November 1965). 1966 – Richard Bradley appointed School’s eighth Warden Workshops (Handicrafts) completed May 1966 Work begins on new Biology Laboratories ( H.P. Little design ) and is soon delayed due to lack of the bricks chosen. An extension of the Science Block, the scheme centralises Biology teaching at the east end of the building. Completed November 1966 Main Buildings work ( H.P. Little design ) continues - upper floor now complete and ready for use by Apsley in the Autumn Term 1966. Washrooms are renovated. On the second floor, old Sing’s Dormitories converted into Day Rooms and studies and quarters for the House Nurse. Downstairs the Common Room accommodation is expanded and ‘an extra Dining Room is being formed from two former Junior Day Rooms’ (October Chronicle). Costs for this work have been a matter of much debate and finally agreed at £39,260 (£1,028,612 today) Workshops finally completed with classes now taking place in Metal Work and the Carpenter’s Shop is nearly complete (General Purposes, February 1966) ‘Many faults found in the new buildings in Kendall Quad’ with the worst being a leak in the Boiler Room wall (General Purposes, February 1966) Building programme hit by several delays, the ‘new’ Apsley House is late due to ‘contractual work’ and 20 boys are delayed 2 days returning to School, the flooring is holding up the opening of the Science Block extension, the Masters’ Common Room is still not quite finished. The north side of the Quadrangle is still being cleared of builder’s refuse and the main passage between the Dining Hall and Kitchens is being re-laid after disruptions ‘for the purposes of plumbing and wiring’. The structural work for the second Dining Room is well advanced but still has some significant issues to resolve, including which section of the School should eat there (Governors’ Meeting, June 1966) Three key areas are seen as what could be called ‘the completion of this (latest) building programme - the equipping of the new Dining Room, the re-planning of Macnamara’s House, including the re-siting of the House Nurse’s accommodation between Tilly’s and Macnamara’s and the re-apportionment of rooms between the private side and the boys and the introduction of a Language Laboratory 11 Thorncliffe Road is sold to Fran Prichard (Common Room) ‘subject to a satisfactory price and rent being negotiated’ (Governors’ Meeting, June 1966). Eventually sold to the Prichards at £5,750 (£150,650 today) with a lease back at £300 (£7860 today) per year (General Purposes, February 1967) Science Block extended eastwards ( H.P. Little design ) School Archives established in the former Corfe House Day-Room. 1967 - During the Easter Term the new-style Dining Hall will have a self-service system for the first time (January 1967). The costs of this new style (cafeteria) service will be £1,500 (£37,800 today) School acquires 30 Hobson Road for £4,000 (£100,800 today) for the ‘use of the new Clerk of Works or other member of the domestic or teaching staff’ (General Purposes, May 1967). 1968 - Class Room accommodation seen as ‘unsystematic and inefficient (except the Science Block)’. There is no sense of departmental areas in distribution of Class Rooms and this becomes an important aspect when a Department acquires a Technical Centre such as a Language Laboratory. The creating of a Laboratory reduces the number of class rooms available for conventional teaching by at least one.